Las Vegas, NV
Intel, recent off a historic funding from the Trump administration, has a plan to radically reshape the corporate’s technique.
And if you happen to assume it entails AI… You’re proper.
Once the dominant participant in chips, Intel has struggled to keep pace with rivals over the previous decade, ceding floor to Qualcomm and Nvidia in essential areas like cell and AI. And whereas Intel continues to be the highest maker of laptop computer and desktop chips, it’s going through elevated competitors from rivals.
Under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who took the helm final March, the corporate has a brand new turnaround plan. And it relies upon in half on the newly introduced Core Ultra Series 3 chip, which might be in nearly each main new laptop computer this yr.
But Intel is aware of it must embed its chips in greater than laptops to catch up – and doubtlessly get ahead – in AI. That’s why its new chips may also energy gadgets like robots as the following main space of development for AI, Jim Johnson, head of Intel’s shopper computing group, mentioned in an interview on the CES tech convention in Las Vegas this week.
“The devices between PCs and the cloud are almost infinite,” he mentioned simply after the corporate launched its new chip.
Days after Intel introduced the brand new chip, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he’d met with Tan, lauding the corporate for manufacturing in the United States — a reminder that the corporate has a strong ally for its comeback plan.
Intel continues to be the highest PC chipmaker by a big margin. The International Data Corporation reported that Intel accounted for greater than 71% of the market in 2024 (it hasn’t printed full-year knowledge for 2025 but).
But it’s going through elevated competitors from AMD, and Apple shifted away from utilizing Intel’s chips in its MacBooks in favor of its personal processors in 2020. Intel additionally cut 15% of its staff final yr, and shares (INTC) are down greater than 18% over the previous 5 years.
Intel needs the brand new chip to bolster its core PC enterprise in two methods: first, by enhancing non-AI qualities that PC patrons search for, like battery life; and second, by boosting efficiency for the methods folks now use AI. That consists of coding brokers or video-conferencing apps like Zoom that use AI to enhance name high quality. The firm says the brand new chip will energy greater than 200 new PC designs.
There’s no one-size-fits-all for shoppers’ AI wants, Johnson mentioned. “It’s like, what does a reporter need that may be different than what a gamer wants?”
But Intel’s rivals are transferring equally as quick.
AMD introduced new chips at CES that may course of bigger AI fashions on laptops with out having to depend on the cloud for processing, boosting privateness and decreasing lag. Qualcomm, a comparatively small participant in the PC market, has additionally been pushing extra deeply into the laptop computer area; it introduced a brand new laptop computer chip at CES that it claims will supply multi-day battery life and is optimized for AI duties.
Intel may also must keep away from repeating its strategic missteps. That entails extra than simply determining what folks need from their PCs; it additionally means making chips quick sufficient to maintain up with, or surpass, rivals.
Tan is engaged on that, in line with Johnson, who experiences to him instantly.
In certainly one of their first one-on-one conferences, Tan inspired Johnson to textual content him if prospects had been sad.
“(Tan) wants to know good news, bad news, problems, plans,” Johnson mentioned.
Like different main chipmakers, Intel is betting on rising applied sciences like humanoid robots for future development. And it’s making some progress.
Oversonic Robotics, an organization that makes humanoid robots for healthcare and different industries, plans to modify from Nvidia to Intel’s Core Ultra 3 chip to energy its robots.
Costs had been decrease general and efficiency was sooner since Intel’s chips don’t have to connect with cloud servers to course of requests, in line with Intel spokesperson Nina Mehlhaf. (Oversonic Robotics nonetheless makes use of Nvidia’s tech to coach its AI fashions, nevertheless.)
But Nvidia’s chips stay the beating coronary heart of information facilities powering AI companies, thrusting it to the forefront of the AI increase and briefly making it the world’s first $5 trillion public company. Robots are a significant a part of Nvidia’s efforts. It introduced new AI fashions for use in robotics and showcased how its tech is powering robots in healthcare and different industries at CES.
Still, the demand for humanoid robots is unclear. Bill Ray, an analyst following rising applied sciences and robotics for market analysis agency Gartner, mentioned deployments of humanoid robots are scarce, and so they nonetheless face too many technical and bodily limitations to be sensible.
But Johnson stays constructive about Intel’s path, and Wall Street appears to agree. Intel shares gained roughly 84% in 2025 and are up roughly 98% year-over-year.
“I see Intel getting back in shape like it used to be,” Johnson mentioned.
The US authorities took a roughly 10% stake in Intel final yr, doubtlessly giving traders some assurance about Intel’s future.
In his Thursday Truth Social put up, Trump mentioned the US authorities “is proud to be a Shareholder of Intel,” and reiterated his dedication to “bring leading edge Chip Manufacturing back to America.”
NCS’s John Towfighi contributed to this report.